


Never Ending Stories

by mideltone_one



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 22:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11023092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mideltone_one/pseuds/mideltone_one
Summary: Aaron has an idea for a new TV programme.





	Never Ending Stories

**Author's Note:**

> Another bit of fluff, because there's more than enough angst on screen at the moment.
> 
> All characters belong to ITV.

Aaron walks back towards the living room, drying his hands on a tea towel. He stops by one of the columns that separates the kitchen from the main living room and looks at his husband who is sitting on the settee in front of him, head buried in the TV listings magazine. “So Rob,” he says, “what's worth us watching tonight?”  
Robert sighs, then looks up. “Nothing,” he replies, “same as last night. Just hours and hours of bloody soaps.”  
Aaron shakes his head. “They prefer you to call them continuing dramas,” he says, grinning at the look of disgust on his husband's face.  
“Yeah? Well I'd prefer to be called Squire Robert and have all the villagers on bended knee before me, but that ain't gonna happen either.”  
“Play your cards right, you might get me on bended knee later.”  
“Promises, promises,” replies Robert with a grin, “anyway, have a look for yourself while I get a beer. D’you want one?” He holds up the magazine which Aaron takes before Robert gets up and walks over to the beer fridge.

When he walks back, beers in hand, Aaron is engrossed in the magazine himself. Robert waggles one of the cans in front of him until he looks up and takes it from him, placing it down on the coffee table before him. Robert frowns slightly. “You alright?” he asks, sitting himself on the sofa next to him.  
“Yeah,” says Aaron, “just thinking about these soaps”  
“Continuing dramas?” Robert grins again.  
“Yes, Squire,” replies Aaron with a chuckle.  
“What about them?”  
Aaron lays the magazine down in front of him and picks up his can. He seems to be deep in thought. Robert gives him a few minutes before he starts to worry. “What about them?” he asks again.  
“They're all set in towns aren't they?” he says, “I mean, why hasn't anyone tried setting one somewhere like this?”  
“What? A dead end sleepy little village where almost nothing happens?”  
“Nothing happens? How many places have had a helicopter crash on them? Or so many murders? I think it’d be a great place to base a soap.”

“Well, it would please Bob and David not to mention your mum, if it was set here,” says Robert.  
“Why only them?” asks Aaron, looking puzzled, “Everyone would get a kick out of seeing their own houses on screen.”  
“Tours of the village, or rather paid tours of the village? Enjoy a pint in the pub you know so well? Afternoon tea in the cafe, where you can also buy a selection of gifts?” Robert is warming to the idea as he speaks.  
“Don't forget Home Farm. Could I suggest another attraction, up there?” Robert nods encouragingly. “What about an amusement park?”  
“I like the sound of that,” says Robert, with a smile, “especially if there's a shooting gallery.”  
Aaron chuckles, “Better not let Lachlan or Lawrence near that.”  
“Depends if they'd be the targets or not,” chuckles Robert.

“There's always a baddie,” says Aaron, “I guess that would be Lachlan?” He looks over at Robert for confirmation.  
“He's a psycho, but he's not devious enough to be a criminal mastermind, is he?”  
“True. So the big baddie would be …?” They pause, lost in thought, before both answering at once.  
“Cain.”  
“Brenda.”  
“Brenda?” Aaron looks at Robert in disbelief.  
Robert tries not to laugh, but he can't help himself. “As if,” he says, once he's calmed down, “she can barely manage an order for two coffees. I'd say Cain was the obvious choice.”  
“Some would say you could give him a run for his money.”  
“A few years back, maybe,” says Robert, reaching out to take hold of Aaron's hand, “before I met the love of my life, the leading heartthrob in the village.”  
“What, Adam?”  
Robert shakes his head, “He's more like the chief idiot of the village. And also, should I be worried that my husband fancies his best mate who happens to be married to my sister?”  
“Nah, we’d just be mates. You know they’d want to stress that straight men can have gay friends.”  
“Bet they'd make you try it on with him though. They'd probably have me unable to resist any woman that walked in front of me, because, you know, bisexuals can't be trusted.”

They fall into silence, musing on the ways they might be portrayed, until Aaron speaks again. “What makes you so sure we'd be main characters? You might only see us as extras in the cafe, or propped up silently at the bar.”  
“They wouldn't waste the sexiest man in the village, and his blond husband, by making them extras,” replies Robert smiling broadly.  
“I think,” says Aaron grinning back, “you'll find it's the sexiest man in the village, and his brunette husband.”  
“I think we can compromise on the sexiest couple,” says Robert, before leaning over to kiss his husband. When he breaks the kiss he has another question. “OK, now we've sorted out place and some of the characters, what would this new soap, sorry, continuing drama, of yours be called?”

“The Village People,” says Aaron firmly, suggesting he's given it some thought.  
Even Robert Sugden, a master at controlling his facial expressions, can't hide his disbelief at the name, though he tries hard to. “Really?” he asks, a slight quiver in his voice.  
There isn't the slightest hint of doubt in Aaron's voice as he replies, “What else would you call it? It's about people who live in a village.”  
“So Adam would be a builder?” Robert can't help himself, leading Aaron further up the garden path. “And there'd be a policeman?”  
“I dunno, probably?”  
“Any others you’ve thought of? Maybe a soldier? You know, an occasional character, comes in from time to time?”  
“How would that work?” Asks Aaron, “I mean, unless they get together with a cowboy, a red Indian, and a man in leather chaps to sing songs every week.” He stares at Robert intently.

Robert manages to keep it together for a few seconds before he starts laughing, holding his hands up to admit he's been found out. “OK,” he says, “but to be fair you started it.”  
“I was seeing how stupid you thought I was, Mr Dingle,” says Aaron, “and clearly there’s going to be a lot of making up to do for you to get back in my good books.”  
“Next, on Village People,” says Robert in a pretend announcer voice, “Robert is in the doghouse again. Can he win Aaron round with his special seduction techniques? Stay tuned.”  
“Actually, I do have a name for it,” says Aaron. “Liv was telling me about something she found on line-“  
“I don’t like where this might be going.”  
“Nothing like that, Robert. She was saying there was a plane crash, and they changed the name of the village to Emmerdale after that.”  
“Oh yeah,” says Robert, racking his brains, “I remember my mum and dad talking about that when I was … I must have been … about ten?”  
“You’d’ve been eight. It was in 1992. The village was called Beckindale before then.”  
“That’s right” says Robert, “Sounds OK for a soap. Coming up on Beckindale, Robert, the Bohemian artist, spends a night of passion with Aaron, the wealthy business man.”  
They both start laughing again.

“What if there already is a soap based here?” asks Robert after a few minutes.  
“Eh?”  
“Like that film, you know, The Truman Show.”  
“So you think there’s camera all over the place filming us. Has Charity been saying things again?”  
“No. Not that she'd tell us even if she did know anything. Of course, if we were being filmed they'd have to edit out a lot of our scenes. Unless there was like a late night version of the show.”  
“True. We'd have a special phrase to make it clear what we were going to do, without actually showing anything.”  
“Like, d’you want to take this upstairs?”  
“Shit. Maybe we are being filmed.”  
“Hmm. I guess then, if there’s anything private I want to say to you, I'll have to say it while we're having sex. Of course if we're on a pay porn channel all bets are off.”  
“Is the thought of being filmed turning you on?”  
“No, but I do think there are a lot of things we're gonna have to discuss in private over the next few weeks.”  
“How convenient,” says Aaron, standing up, “now do you want to take this upstairs?”  
“Always,” replies Robert with a grin.


End file.
